Inside RIM The Lunatics Are Running The Asylum

RIM thinks Apple employees are pretending to be from other companies to rig votes for the nano-SIM.

Life hasn’t been good to RIM lately. The company is losing developers and major enterprise clients on a weekly basis. Its PlayBook tablet hasn’t made a dent in iPad sales (or even Android tablet sales, for that matter) and the company is practically begging Android developers to port their apps to the PlayBook. You’d expect the company to be frantic, particularly after the ousting of its co-CEOs last month… but that isn’t the case.

In one of the biggest delusions of grandeur that I’ve ever seen (which is saying something considering I was once the IT director for a mental health services agency), the company’s executives and board apparently think things are fine, that Apple is on the verge of death, and anyone outside the company is a moron. At least that’s the picture one RIM board member painted in an interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail recently.

On the possibility of selling the company or licensing the BlackBerry brand

“So we’re supposed to hand it over to children, or morons from the outside who will destroy the company?” he says. “Or should we try to build our way to having succession?”

On competition from the iPhone:

“People were saying we can’t make powerful phones like Apple. Yes, we can, but we couldn’t believe consumers would put up with that kind of battery inefficiency and that kind of network inefficiency.”

On Apple as a business in the mobile space

“They ask ‘Why cant you be more like Apple?’ So we should go bankrupt and fire our founders and bring in a moron? That’s what we should do?”

On RIM’s former co-CEOs and RIM’s place in the mobile market

“And people just don’t understand the depth of understanding these guys have of their business, the connections, whatever.”

At the end of this piece, one thing seems pretty clear about the Waterloo, Ontario company to anyone with a passing knowledge of the mobile technology market and RIM’s precious place in it: the lunatics appear to be running the asylum.

Deals of the Day

Well at least this provides some insight into why their company is doing so poorly.

FriarNurgle

I could be at least 1/2 as stupid for a fraction of those idiot’s salaries. Just saying, RIM. You know if you’re looking for someone.

imajoebob

There’s no excuse for that board existing. They’re just as responsible and should have been sacked along with the CEOs. I can’t believe some big shareholders hasn’t demanded they resign, en masse.

Grid

RIM are in trouble, but did you even read the interview? Your cut-and-paste job and the non-sensical link between your comments and the quotes suggests not. Try and make an effort next time.

Delfin del Busto

Totally agree, the quotes are taken completely out of context.

Aj Tk427

Yup, the first one is totally the wrong context, that was relating to removing the co-ceo’s and replacing them not selling the company.

Aj Tk427

People, please go read the actual Globe and Mail piece, actually written by a journalist.I’m not defending RIM, or the guy that was interviewed, just this piece takes it totally out of context.

vistarox

I haven’t lost faith in RIM. The leaked images of the next BlackBerry OS looks very good and the leaked hardware images looks amazing

Anthony Flores

Yah some of these comments were taken out of context, but reading the original article does not change the fact that Martin is a stubborn, delusional idiot (well educated one). To make some of the statements and comparisons he made, with little or no culpability or admission of failure is simply unexplainable.

If you read that blog, there are a lot of Canadian RIM fans posting and lamenting over how delusional this guy is. So this COM article may be a bit flawed, but it doesn’t paint an unfair or inaccurate picture of Martin… he does that just fine all by himself.

Lol29y

But when the spotlight is not shining bright at you(RIM). It’s hard to tell wether you offer the most shining products or the most dull products

Alfiejr

Read the original article. this guy is plainly in denial. RIM market share and stock price are collapsing, and his response is to stay the course. he’s going down with the ship.

the 2nd generation smartphone revolution – iOS/Android touchscreen computer/phones – propelled Apple and Samsung to the top of the OEM heap. and it pulled the rug out from under the two former OEM top dogs of the 1st smartphone era – RIM and Nokia, which took the market over from the prior PDA era leader, Palm, now gone.

Nokia at least has realized the world has changed and is trying to re-make itself with Microsoft’s support. i don’t think it will ever get back to the top that way, but at least it should survive.

RIM on the other hand is the next Palm. only question is who gobbles up what’s left, probably next year.